BILL REQ. #:  S-3659.1 

Read first time 01/16/2004.   Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services & Corrections.

     AN ACT Relating to detention of certain felony defendants in a treatment facility following competency restoration; adding a new section to chapter 10.77 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that in some instances defendants who have been restored to competency subject to a valid court order and returned to a local correctional facility to await trial decompensate to the point of incompetency between the time of their return to incarceration and their trial date. The legislature also finds that repeated mental decompensation is detrimental to the health and welfare of all persons and often causes overall degeneration in the person's mental condition. The legislature further finds that the court's authority to order a defendant held at a state hospital or in an appropriate less restrictive treatment setting to maintain the defendant's competency to stand trial has been brought into question. The legislature therefore finds that this combination of circumstances impairs the state's ability to adequately protect the public because it: (1) Prevents the state from determining the guilt or innocence of defendants in a court of law; (2) results in a situation in which guilty defendants cannot be held accountable for their actions; and (3) may result in a situation in which persons whose competency was restored and lost present a larger risk to public safety. The legislature, therefore, intends to remedy this situation by clarifying that the court has the authority to order felony defendants held at the state hospital or in an appropriate less restrictive treatment setting and establishing standards for a court to make this order.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 10.77 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) When the court has ordered competency restoration for a defendant, the court may, subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, order the defendant held at the state hospital or in an appropriate less restrictive alternative pending trial or during breaks for longer than forty-eight hours that occur during the trial.
     (2) In order to order a defendant held at the state hospital, the defendant must be charged with a felony offense and the court must find that:
     (a) Continued treatment is medically appropriate and necessary to maintain the defendant's competency to stand trial;
     (b) The defendant is likely to decompensate into incompetency if held in a correctional facility; and
     (c) No setting less restrictive than the one ordered is appropriate.
     (3) In determining whether a less restrictive setting is appropriate, the court shall consider both whether the setting is medically appropriate and whether it provides an appropriate level of security.